


Reunited

by KleptoElf



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:28:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28153101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KleptoElf/pseuds/KleptoElf
Summary: Black Siren is full of hatred, and Oliver wants to know why. When she is captured by the team, he takes the opportunity to question her to find out what made her like this. What Black Siren doesn't realise is Oliver has secrets of his own that will change everything.
Relationships: Earth-2 Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	Reunited

"Team Flash just sent over confirmation. It's not our Laurel. Her name is Black Siren, from Earth-2. She came to our universe with all the metahuman doppelgangers Barry has been dealing with this year. She's an imposter."

Oliver had made no sign that he had heard Felicity as she stepped out of the elevator, heels clicking on the concrete floor, choosing instead to continue staring at the screen in front of him. Diggle stood beside him, also watching the screen, though Oliver could see him glance up out of the corner of his eye, probably trying to gauge his reaction to what was in front of them.

The monitor showed a live feed of a large prison cell, surrounded on all sides by thick metal bars that gave it the appearance of a cage. Inside was a woman lying on an uncomfortable-looking metal bench, her black boots raised to rest on the bars that trapped her. Her eyes were closed, though he doubted the woman was sleeping. If she had instincts even close to his, something which he did not doubt, she would be patiently waiting for a moment to prevent itself so she could escape.

Black Siren, he thought, eyes tracing over her. She looked identical to the Laurel Lance of Earth-1, though she dressed differently than Laurel that had been taken from them, opting to forego the pantsuit and instead don dark jeans, a black t-shirt, and a navy-blue leather jacket. She was also sporting a large bruise on her jaw and a large cut above her eyebrow that stood out angrily against her skin, caused by the collision that had rendered her unconscious. Anger welled up inside him, but he pushed it down, ensuring no emotion played on his face.

"What are we going to do with her?" It was Diggle this time who spoke. Oliver did not answer right away, instead taking his time to mull over his answer. He knew that his two companions would like to see her sent back to where she came from, or else locked away and forgotten about like so many in Team Flash's pipeline they didn't think he knew about. He looked away to look at his friends, though sometimes he wondered if they were even that anymore, and gave his response.

"I would like to speak to her. Alone."

Felicity scoffed at his words, and he raised an eyebrow at her, but for once she didn't elaborate. He turned towards Diggle who had a sympathetic look in his eye.

"You know that isn't her, right? You know that isn't our Laurel. I don't understand what the hell is going on with parallel universes or whatever, but she came here to fight, and to kill. There's no getting around that."

"I know, Dig. And I will take it into account when I make my decision. But only after I have spoken to her. And when I say alone, I mean it. No cameras, no listening in, no getting in my way."

Felicity barked out a laugh, though it had no humour in it. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she had a disbelieving look on her face.

"Really, Oliver? You think we're going to fall for that? This isn't Laurel! This is an evil woman masquerading in her clothes to get under your skin, and you've fallen for it! She is working with Prometheus, someone who wants to kill you, and you're still about to give her a second chance? This is like Helena all over again! You just have to go being a hero, even when Laurel didn't want –"

Felicity was interrupted by Oliver's angry shout.

"Felicity! Do not take me for an idiot! I am fully aware of what I'm doing, and don't intend to have my decisions undermined! Turn off this feed and leave me to talk to Black Siren alone!"

Felicity looked as if she had swallowed a lemon, and Diggle looked on concerned as Oliver stalked away from them to his equipment table where he liked to tinker with a variety of trick arrows and gadgets. They saw him reach for a flechette with a curious blue tip which seemed to glow slightly, pocketing it, and making his way to the door behind which Black Siren was currently residing. Before Felicity or Diggle could react, Oliver had punched the passcode into the keypad and swung the door open, closing it behind him with a resounding thud.

An uncomfortable silence followed his exit, with only the steady hum of the computers making any noise. Felicity was the first to move, sitting down in front of the keyboard and entering a few commands. Diggle thought she was obeying Oliver's command, but upon looking at the screen, he saw she was bringing up more angles of the room that Black Siren was in.

"Oliver asked us to turn off the feed."

"Are we really going to listen to Oliver?" Asked Felicity, watching intently as Oliver entered the room on the screen, closing the door carefully behind him and locking it with a touch of the keypad. "He's never thought straight when it comes to Laurel, and now he's going to do something stupid that we're going to have to clean up. He's probably…"

Felicity broke off, her mouth open and eyes wide and confused. The screen, which had just shown Black Siren sitting up to face Oliver, had turned black. Felicity hit a few keys, but no image appeared. She was unable to work out what had just happened. Somehow, something had turned off her cameras, and nothing that she did could bring the image back. It was like she had been locked out of her own systems, and Felicity had no idea where or what the key was.

She looked over at Diggle, who had an unreadable expression on his face. He shrugged at her expression.

"I guess when he said 'alone', he meant it."

Felicity looked towards the door, wondering what was happening in the room beyond. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

Oliver pushed the door closed carefully behind him, engaging the lock with a press of the keypad. He took in the cell before him and shook his head. It was wrong that they had a cage to contain people, and was akin to his methods from when he first returned to the island, where torturing people for information was always on the table. Inside lay the woman he had come to see, that resembled so closely the person he had lost. He could see her chest rise and fall with each breath, and her face seemed more relaxed that he had ever seen it. It reminded him of life before the island, of waking up before her and watching her sleep, impatient for her to wake up so they could start their day together. The island had changed everything.

"You can stop pretending. I know you're awake."

At his words, Black Siren opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him, still in her relaxed position on the bench.

"So, they great and wise Green Arrow comes to visit little old me. Did blondie not warn you about me? About how dangerous I am? I bet she's listening in right now to make sure I don't try to pull you to the dark side with my seductive ways."

Instead of replying, Oliver pulled the flechette from his pocket and held it out so she could see. It was still glowing blue, and she looked at it unimpressed.

"So, you've come to kill me, is that it? Couldn't spare any arrows? Or am I too unworthy a victim of your alter ego."

This time, Oliver simply pressed a small button on the side of the flechette, and it changed from a blue glow to a red.

"Sometimes when arrows aren't enough, I have to resort to more up-to-date technology. I made this device to lock down and electronics in an area, so only I can have access to them. Useful for turning off cameras, shutting down security systems, and ensuring doors I don't want breached remain locked. Unhackable to anyone without knowledge of this technology, which if I am not mistaken is only me. There's no one watching us."

"Am I meant to believe that crap?" She sneered, though Oliver thought her heart didn't quite seem to be in it.

"I have as much reason to not want people looking in as you do." He told her, walking to a corner of the room and picking up a chair, bringing it closer to the cage and sitting down, though still out of reach of the bars. He wanted to talk without being interrupted by attempts to claw his face.

"What is it you want, then? Something you don't want your team of tag-alongs knowing about obviously."

"To talk, primarily. To understand how we got here."

"Well, your girlfriend hit me with a van, which by the way is a stupid thing to do unless you're trying to kill someone. Now I'm in here and you're out there asking dumb questions."

"Felicity isn't my girlfriend."

"Is that so? Well, why don't you open this cage, and we can have one last fuck before I kill you. For old time's sake."

"Tempting, but no. I want to know how you became like this. How you became Black Siren."

Black Siren stared at him. She had walked up to the bars closest to him and had wrapped her hands around them as they talked. Making up her mind, she pushed away from the bars and walked back to the bench, where she sat down and made herself as comfortable as she could.

"You want to know what made me so fucked up?" At his nod, she sighed.

"Not like I've got anything better to do." She paused again. "On my Earth, we were dating. Talking about marriage and kids and all that shit. Then you decided to get on a boat and get killed. Your dad died and you survived on this Earth, but my Oliver was left to die by your prick of a father. He straight up admitted to being the cause of your death when the boat capsized, though he never said how. Add that to my dad dying, and the government deciding all metahumans are scum after the particle accelerator explosion, and I was kinda pushed over the edge. Killed some people, knocked down some buildings, fucked over some annoying people, got myself arrested. Honestly, I was hoping they'd just kill me."

At this point she paused. She hadn't been looking at Oliver through all of this, but now she fixed her eyes on his, glaring at him.

"Then some speed freak brings me to a different fucking universe to kill the Flash or whatever, and everywhere I look I see the face of my dead boyfriend. Seems I'm still stuck with that problem. Even now Zoom is gone people still want to use me to get to you. What a fun fucking life I lead."

A silence fell between them. It wasn't nice to hear what Laurel had been through, Earth-2 or not. Oliver could liken it to his own experiences on the island, though he had always been able to hold onto the hope of escaping one day.

"Thank you." He said finally. "I'm sorry for what you had to go through. That can't have been easy."

"No shit. Little bit more heart break and pain than your dead canary had to deal with."

"Undoubtedly. Yet you're still here and she's in the ground."

She was confused by his words. They almost sounded dismissive of his oh so precious Laurel.

"You make it sound like you don't give a shit about her. Ready to move on already? She's barely cold, you know."

Oliver gave no reaction, choosing instead to change the topic.

"Would you like to hear how I came to be here?"

"Not particularly, but I doubt that's going to stop you."

"No, it's not."

Oliver stood, moving the chair back into the corner before turning back to face her. His face was still infuriatingly unreadable, and she wanted nothing more than to reach out and rake her hands across that perfect face, to make him do something other than just look at her with no expression.

"Our stories will be a little similar to start with. I went out on a boat with my father, leaving my girlfriend behind. She gave me this picture before I left," he pulled out a worn and tattered picture that Black Siren recognised as the same one she had given to her Oliver, "'so I wouldn't forget her' she said. As if I ever could. There was a storm, and the boat went down. Me and my father made it to a life raft. We floated for days, until we finally ran out of food. Dad started rambling, saying how he needed to get back, to fix his mistakes. Then he pulled a gun and shot me in the chest."

She was confused. This was different to the story she had heard about how this Earth's Oliver had become the Green Arrow. He continued.

"I started bleeding out, and dad was muttering apologies as he pushed me overboard. Probably couldn't bare looking at what he had done to his own son. Never I thought I'd die looking up at my dad with tears in his eyes, the gun still in his hand, as he shoved backwards over the side of the life raft. I didn't have the strength to swim, so I just sank into the black. I remember the water filling my lungs as the light vanished. And I remember dying."

"Fuck off. If you died, how are you here?" Despite herself, Black Siren was curious. Even if it was an elaborate lie, it was better sitting bored alone in a dim room. Oliver shrugged.

"I woke up. On an island in the North China sea, in clothes I wasn't wearing before, and no bullet wound. I remembered everything from before, but I had no idea where I was. Took me a while to get used to running for my life from people with guns, swords, and arrows. But I adapted quick, and I survived. I made it home. But when I got back, I didn't recognise anything. There was a sister I didn't remember ever having, a now ex-girlfriend who was mad at me for apparently taking her sister on the boat with me and sleeping with her, then letting her die, and a best friend whose mother had died before I had gone missing. I spent five years coming to terms with the fact that the trauma I experienced must have caused me to forget things, to change facts and invent people who never existed. I pushed away people close to me because they were unrecognisable. I started a crusade against the Star City elite at the request of my father, who had apparently shot himself rather than me to give me a chance at survival. But through all of this I couldn't shake the feeling I was a foreigner in my own body, that I was an imposter, and not the real Oliver Queen."

It was his turn to pause, swallowing thickly. It was the first time he had expressed anything but the calm façade he had had since walking in the room.

"That all changed when the Flash told me about the other universes. How multiple copies of us existed in those worlds, living different lives with different people. Everything started to become a little clearer, questions being answered in ways that seemed impossible. I'm not sure why I asked him, but I got him to show me different versions of myself. Some worlds were so foreign I barely recognised myself, and some were too similar for my liking."

Now Oliver walked up to the bars, close enough for Black Siren to touch him if she wanted. She stayed where she was for the moment, incapsulated by his story. Nothing of what she had been told was fitting with this man's version of events, but a little voice in the back of her head whispered of familiarity.

"But one world stood out among all the others. A world I thought I had lost or made up."

With that, he took hold his left sleeve and pulled it up to his elbow, revealing his forearm which he angled so she could see.

She froze. It was impossible. It was a trick. On his arm, clear as day, was a tattoo. She remembered convincing her Oliver they should get them together for their anniversary, and he had reluctantly agreed. On her arm, hidden by the jacket she wore, was a crown, a play on words on his last name. And on his...

"You…you fucker. This is some sick fucking trick, a way to kick me when I'm down. Isn't it? Admit it!" She was shouting now, still unable to move as much as she wanted to tear his eyes from their sockets. But the canary on his arm pulled her attention, burning into her retinas as her eyes became hot and wet.

"The world I lost. The world I was desperate to get back to. My world. Somehow, I had woken in a different body, of a different Oliver. But as I saw that world, that different Earth, the only thing missing was my Laurel. My canary. My Pretty Bird."

At that, warm tears began to fall down Black Siren's face. In all her research, there was no evidence of this world's Oliver using that name. So that meant…

"Ollie?" She whispered, finally managing to get to her feet.

"It's me, Pretty Bird. I promise."

"Prove it." She wanted more than anything for it to be true, but she couldn't help but seek out lies in his words. He smiled and drew closer to the bars, pressing the gadget he held to the lock on the cage, and she heard an electronic buzz as the door unlocked. He swung it open and walked in, stopping just out of her reach.

"Do you remember what I said to you that day, just before I left?"

She nodded, not trusting her voice.

"I pulled you close and told you that I loved you, and that I was going to miss you. My father yelled that we needed to get going but I didn't let go. You grumbled that I didn't have to leave, and I laughed. Then I told you I had to go, to learn about the business I was going to take over someday. I told you I was doing it for us, for our family we were going to make, for the life we were going to spend together. Because I love you, Dinah Laurel Lance, no matter what our pasts are, no matter what universe we're in. I will always be yours."

With that, Black Siren, Laurel, launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder, Oliver stroking her hair as he held her just as tight. For a long while, the two souls who had finally found each other again stayed in that position, hugging in the middle of the cage that had been her prison minutes before, neither of them wanting to be the one to pull away first.

Eventually, Laurel raised her head off his shoulder and pressed her lips to his, and Oliver was quick to kiss her back. It was desperate and filled with years of emotion, but held none of the awkwardness usually associated with time apart. His fingers tangled themselves in her hair as she removed as much space between them as she could, pulling his body against his.

When they separated to finally take a breath, Laurel let out a choked laugh.

"How? How are you here?"

"I've asked myself that ever since I found out where I was from. But it doesn't matter now. All that matters is that you're here with me, and I don't give a shit about what universe we're in."

Laurel giggled at the profanity. Oliver had never been one for swearing. Then again, neither had she until becoming Black Siren.

"What about your two lackeys?" She asked, still refusing to let him go, scared that if she did it would turn out to be a dream, or perhaps a nightmare.

"They can get on board, or they leave. Either way I'm not letting you spend another second her like a trapped bird."

She smiled up at him and pulled him into another kiss. She felt like her mind was on fire, and the grin refused to be wiped from her face. When they broke apart, Oliver took her hand and turned towards the door.

"Time to face the music, I guess. Wonder how they'll react when they realise I'm from Earth-2."

Laurel couldn't imagine it would go down particularly well. Not that she cared. They were dead weights in her opinion. Though dead would have to remain a metaphor. She was done being Black Siren, of the death and destruction, of answering to lesser men who forced her to do what they wanted. From now on, she was free. Free to be with the man she loved, who had been returned to her so unexpectedly.

"And then? What happens after?" She asked, following him to the door which he unlocked with another press of his strange gadget to the door lock. He turned to face her and smirked.

"Then I'm taking you home. You look like you need a shower, and I'm looking to take you up on your offer of sex, though I think we should leave the killed out."

Laurel laughed, a full laugh that hadn't been heard since Oliver had disappeared. He squeezed her hand and pulled her through the doorway after him, through a short corridor and out into the main area of the base, where she could see John Diggle and Felicity Smoak standing at the computers, looking at her warily.

"What the hell, man? What happened in there? And why is she out?" Diggle asked, not-so-subtly reaching for the gun at his waist.

"You may want to sit down," Oliver replied, still not letting go of her hand, "this is kind of a long story."

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little brain-worm I thought would be interested to see play out. Hope you enjoy :)


End file.
